Turkey: 1000th anniversary of the weekly Saturday Mothers protest
Featured image: Saturdays Mothers at Galatasaray Square; Source: Yeni Demokrasi
Saturday Mothers came together on May 25 at the Galatasaray Square in Istanbul joined by dozens of people on the 1000th anniversary of their weekly actions.
The struggle for justice, which the Saturday Mothers have been carrying out since 1995 to ask about the fate of their relatives who were forcefully disappeared and murdered in custody and to demand the prosecution of the perpetrators, has entered its 1000th week. The barriers around the Galatasaray Square, erected by the police during the 700th week of action in 2018, were removed due to the mass protest on its 1000th week.
Those who came to the area wore aprons with the words “Saturday Mothers” written in Kurdish and Turkish. Saturday Mothers placed a black carpet on the square and placed the words “1000 weeks” on the cover with photos of those who were murdered and disappeared in custody. At the same time, carnations were arranged around the cover.
Protests were held in many cities in Turkey as well as in European cities in support of the Saturday Mothers’ struggle. One of these actions took place at Claraplatz in Basel, Switzerland. The solidarity rally carried out by the “Committee of Solidarity with Disappeared in Custody”, in which the Federation of Turkish Workers from Switzerland [İTIF] participates. During the protest, photos of the missing were carried and the crowd shouted “Mothers’ Anger Will Choke the Murderers!” The protest ended by saluting the resistance of the Saturday Mothers.
